Sunday, January 15, 2012

Off and running

Well that surely was an interesting week in our industry eh? I never thought that when I posted my blog last week that more acquisitions would be coming so fast and furious. Going forward the assumption should be that things will settle down but actually there have been rumblings from other concerns (not Grey Mountain) about some major moves about to take place. So 2012 is starting to look like the “year of the deal” and that should at least make things interesting! To me the bright spot in all of this is these are straight deals and not consolidations, which means there’s a confidence that money can be made. Which also means that maybe the worst of our malaise is over and we’re starting to consistently climb back.

Elsewhere…

-- As but for every piece of promise comes a piece of worry. This week the Associated Press ran this absolutely frightening article about the skyscraper boom in India and China and the effects on a possible massive downturn.

-- On the Glass Magazine site I know we were having some issues with the commenting feature. Hopefully it is fixed now. In any case the comments that were meant to be there were about Google+ and its value. There are more than a few people who are in agreement with me about it, questioning its future and value, so it was nice to see I am not alone. I'm still trying though, but can't get in the groove.

-- Speaking of social media… if you are on LinkedIn, please make sure you join the National Glass Association group. Always a good discussion or two going on there. LinkedIn has some great groups and sure it does have some serious duds but once you can optimize the experience it is really a worthwhile feature.

-- Guardian is becoming a “go to” place for our elected leaders to visit. In the last two weeks, they’ve had two pretty powerful U.S. Congressmen visit them and to me the more the merrier. Our industry has taken a beating in Washington over the years, so the more exposure we can get the better.

-- Did you happen to see the Elvis “Cirque” show in Las Vegas is done at the end of this year. I guess I gotta make sure I see it before that happens. Shame it didn’t take off, I can only wonder how it compared to the Beatles “Love” show which is the best show on the strip right now.

-- Sign we are all in the wrong business? That little energy drink “5 Hour Energy” sells 9 MILLION bottles a week. Just crazy.

-- I know this gets covered everywhere, but on the whole “glass falling epidemic” I have just one question… is the presence of the internet, now fueled by lighting fast informational wires like Twitter, making the issue more prevalent? And what I mean by that is are we having more breakage than historical normal or are we just hearing about it so much more? I just wonder if these issues have always been out there but just not covered so intently.

-- Last this week, Sorry to see the Tebow train end this weekend. That guy is a true blue American role model. Man I hate the Patriots…

LINKS of the WEEK

-- The new thing in traffic flows... “the roundabout”- I don’t know about you but I HATE them… look out though, they are coming more and more…

-- Must read story on the NFL ref diagnosed with cancer thanks to an on field fight. Some things really do happen for a reason…

-- The great Journey tune “Don’t Stop Believing” has always had a major mistake… that being there is no such thing as "South Detroit" and finally some background on why the group used it.